syria foreign ministry 1000 factories in aleppo were robbed and transferred to turkey with its governments full knowledge

Foreign Ministry: 1000 Factories in Aleppo Were Robbed and Transferred to Turkey with Its Government’s Full Knowledge

Jan 10, 2013

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry stressed that the robbery of a thousand factories in Aleppo and their transfer to Turkey with the knowledge and facilitation of the Turkish government is considered “an illegal act that amounts to piracy”. The Ministry’s stress came in two identical letters it addressed on Thursday to the Chairman of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General on the robbery of these factories and the transfer of the properties to Turkey with its government’s full knowledge.The Ministry described the robbery and transfer as “an act of aggression” that targets the Syrians in their sources of living and economic life. “This act indicates once again the Turkish ambitions and the sabotage role Turkey is playing in the crisis in Syria, and reveals as well its intentions towards the Syrian people,” said the letters, adding that this act also “affirms [Turkey’s] false claims in caring for the Syrians’ life and the major requirements of their living.” The Ministry slammed these practices as “immoral” as they “constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of good neighborliness and non-interference in the countries’ internal affairs”. “[These practices] are a direct contribution in a cross-border crime and acts of piracy, which demands an international reaction that should be up to the wide scale of damage caused to the Syrian people and their economic and commercial capabilities,” the letters added. The Ministry reaffirmed that a reaction is demanded by the Security Council that should be up to the responsibilities and the obligations it assumes in the field of combating terrorism and maintaining international security and peace. Such a reaction is necessitated, the Ministry stressed, in light of the support given by a neighboring country like Turkey to terrorism and the providing of helping conditions for looting Syria’s resources across the border and destroying the Syrians’ capabilities and sources of living, in addition to facilitating the exploitation of these capabilities for the sake of backing terrorism inside Syria. The Ministry demanded that the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary General “issue a clear condemnation of these acts of sabotage and terrorism and take necessary measures to hold to account their perpetrators and the regional and international countries and forces standing behind them.” This condemnation, the letters said, is supposed to “reflect the international organization’s rejection of any additional contribution by the countries that are hostile towards Syria to further aggravate the living conditions of the Syrian people and increase their humanitarian suffering.” The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry called for taking all legal measures against the Turkish government to compel it to give back the stolen properties to their owners and pay all compensations to the affected according to the relevant enforced rules of the international law, in addition to getting it to immediately stop repeating such practices now and in the future.